School & College (Volume 7-8)

. 1919 edition.: ...students who reported, 35 had read one book each, 42 two books, 30 three, 15 four, 13 five, and 16 more than five each. One man reported thirteen books, and two women fourteen each. Only a little less than one-third of all the books read were read by the sixteen students, six men and ten women. The average number of books read by all of the women students was a little less than three, and the average for the men was almost exactly two. There is no question but that the war greatly stimulated the reading of daily papers and serious articles in magazines. This interest in the war was also reflected in the reading of books. Half of the students who had read any book at all had read at least one touching upon the war. One-sixth of all the books read were of this nature. Of such books by far the most popular was Over the Top, by Empey, which has been read by 34 men and 26 women. Private Peat followed with 12 readers. Mr. Britling Sees It Through, read because of its discussion of the war and not because the students knew Wells as a writers, found seven adherents. Christine, taken as genuine history by its freshman readers, found favor in the eyes of two women. My Four Years in Germany, at that time being extensively read by upperclassmen, reached only three freshmen. Under Fire, by Barbusse, then having tremendous vogue among the intellectuals, especially those of pacifist tendencies, found only one stray reader, a woman. Fiction was, of course, predominant in the other reading of these freshmen. Books of prose fiction numbered 172, as compared with 20 of poetry, 19 of drama, 8 of essays, 6 of biography and history, and 5 scientific works. The reading of essays, besides those in the current periodicals, was almost entirely confined to women. Only one man made confession of having read any essays in book form, The Sketch Book, which he had studied in the high school. No young woman looked into a book of science by way of recuperation. Books...